FIGHT THE NY POST’s SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST ORGANIZING BY POOR NEW YORKERS
Living Room Fundraiser

*** RSVP BY EMAIL FOR LOCATION ***

We are asking donations of $50, $150 or $250 (or more!) because there's an urgent need. But if you can't donate that much, please just specify how much you can give. Thanks for your support!

This April, just after conducting a community-led exposé on NYC’s tens of thousands of warehoused, vacant apartments, Picture the Homeless got scandal-slammed by the NY Post. The NY Post smear campaign is part of a wave of right-wing "sting" attacks on grassroots organizations in low-income communities of color.

PTH is a grassroots organization of homeless and formerly homeless people pushing for real solutions to homelessness and the housing crisis. The NY Post – in articles and editorials filled with misinformation, innuendo and racist stereotypes – tried to paint PTH as a criminal enterprise. The articles circulated on white supremacist blogs, so they've also made PTH the focus of racist ire. These attacks come weeks after PTH's release of their report: "Banking on Vacancy: Homelessness & Real Estate Speculation" and their work to end NYPD's Stop and Frisk policies.

First, the Post whipped up a fake scandal about PTH, and called on the City Council to "do something about it." Sure enough, instead of standing up for poor people, the city is preparing to throw PTH to the wolves.

PTH gets $50K in a yearly grant from the city’s Dept. of Housing Preservation & Development. That’s 12% of PTH’s budget. HPD now says maybe they can keep the grant – but it's using its leverage to insist on a murky, intimidating investigation of PTH's organizing. Right now, HPD is “interviewing” PTH members who have been working on controversial city legislation to make landlords legally accountable for fixing up the housing they own.

There are no apparent boundaries on HPD's probe. They've asked for names of homeless activists who may have attended certain meetings and actions and are "interviewing" them about their organizing activities. The NY Post’s scandal-mongering has induced HPD to cast aside decades of tense but cooperative work with community housing activists.

We are friends of PTH who think their work is incredibly important – and that we can't let the NY Post's racist faux journalism shape our city.

Please join us for a fundraiser to help PTH beat back this attack. (If you can’t come, please donate online at picturethehomeless.org.)

FRIDAY, JUNE 8th, 6-8PM, Manhattan's Upper West SIde - RSVP BY EMAIL FOR ADDRESS

We’ll hear from PTH activists, as well as National Lawyers Guild and Center for Constitutional Rights attorneys about their work to defend organizing under current harsh conditions. Drinks and light refreshments served.

RSVP to SueLob@aol.com for location.

Please specify donation level of $50, $150 or $250 (or more!)

Thanks for your support!